Shared services could make government more efficient
Government looks to enforce Gershon review's efficiency savings, with shared finance, HR and IT functions being examined
Cross-government savings from building shared service centres for finance, HR
and IT could be considered, as cabinet ministers face checks that they are
progressing towards meeting £21.5bn in efficiency savings.
The move, announced by chief secretary to the Treasury Des Browne, said that
a junior minister from each of the main eight central government departments
would be made an ‘efficiency champion’, with regular checks made that they are
achieving efficiencies recommended by the Gershon review.
But although these meetings will take place monthly, individual ministers
would only be checked a couple of times a year, according to a report in the
Financial Times.
Browne said in a conference that the government had already made a
‘reasonable start’ on making savings.
